Case studies

When Carol Baxter began researching bushranger Captain Thunderbolt, she found that other books and articles had, naturally, been written. However, most of these were riddled with errors and failed to make use of the wealth of information that was available to an experienced researcher. For example, she found a transcript of Fred Ward’s critical 1856 trial that no one had previously located. Through this case study, you will see how a professional researcher undertakes such research and learn strategies that you can apply to your own research.

In December 2009, the Sun Herald devoted a full page to claims that, according to new research, the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt did not die in 1870 but instead escaped to America. According to these researchers, the police had shot the wrong man and, fearful of the consequences if the news broke that Thunderbolt was still alive, they implemented a cover up. This conspiracy of silence supposedly continues even today and reaches as high as the Governor of New South Wales. Their claims were raised in Parliament in March 2010 and were reported in newspapers as far away as Britain.

Beautiful, feisty, intelligent and educated, Mary Ann Bugg was the “right-hand man” of bushranger Captain Thunderbolt. She was also his lover, the mother of his children, and the most notorious Aboriginal woman in nineteenth-century Australia.

– 30/60 minutes – no equipment necessary but Powerpoint slides are available

In 1863, colonial-born horsebreaker Frederick Ward and a fellow prisoner escaped from the Cockatoo Island penal establishment in Sydney Harbour, the only successful escapees from this barbaric prison. On the run from the authorities, he became the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt and roamed in northern NSW from 1863 until his dramatic denouement in 1870.

- 30/60 minutes – no equipment necessary but Powerpoint slides are available

In 1828, thieves tunnelled through a sewerage drain into the vault of the Bank of Australia and stole the equivalent, in today’s terms, of nearly $20 million, making it the largest bank robbery in Australian history. The crime, in a penal settlement of all places, nearly broke the bank. This talk tells the story of this astonishing robbery; it also provides insights into colonial times and reveals parallels with society today.

- 30/60 minutes – no equipment necessary but Powerpoint slides are available

Sexy convict Jane New was a temptation that John Stephen Jnr found too difficult to resist. John was the Registrar of the NSW Supreme Court, son of a Supreme Court judge, and brother of a future Lieutenant-Governor of NSW. His relatives in England – also with the surname Stephen – had played a leading role in the abolition of slavery.